Mascha Update by Rona - Indy 10:04am Thu Aug 7 '03 Mascha Update print article At 1am last night all 23 Israelis signed an agreement with the police that they would not go into the territories for the next 15 days and were released. It is still unclear whether all the agreements were for a similar time frame; but the charges were dropped. If found in the territories they will be fined 2000NIS. The 37 internationals who'd done the same a day before were told Nazie, the owner of the land the Mascha camp is on who is also arrested, would be released the next day - but after their release his detention was lengthened through this week. add your comments

basic rights denied to an international by Laura 12:09pm Tue Aug 19 '03 print comment During the detention in Ariel rights were denied to Lorenza Erlicher , italian citizen.Though she couldn't speak nor hebrew and english they tried to make her sign papers in Hebrew.They never provided her a translator and denied her to see her lawyer.She was charged with violent resistance on the basis of footage done by the police and never shown to anybody including lawyers and representatives of the italian embassy.She was deported on the 7th of august after spending two nights in Hadera prison. If this is the routine with international citizens, i am afraid to think what happens with palestinians. The following petition was presented by italian citizes to the italian counsolate in jerusalem on august the 8th 2003: 8th August 2003 We, group of italian citizens represented by the signatories respectfully ask the Italian Rapresentations in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv to intervene with the Israeli competent authorities in order to clarify the following issues concerning the detention of Ms Lorenza Erlicher between the dates 5th August and 7th August, viz: 1) not having adequate legal assistence as in her rights. 2) not having received adequate translation for legal documentation she was asked to sign. 3) Her lawyers not having access to footage filmed by the police before her detention ( which is subsequently being used as evidence by the State of Israel against her ). The Facts Lorenza Erlicher was with a group of peace activists trying to save a family’s property from demolition ad effective entrapment between two parts of the “ security fence”. She arrived in Mas’ha in the morning of Sunday 3rd august 2003. During her stay, she witnessed soldiers and other security personnel entering and leaving the compound. Tuesday, 5th August, at approximatly 6.30 am police and military approched the group .A short discussion ensued and soldiers and policemen adviced the group to vacate the area. About five minutes later, the group set down in a circle and linked arms. At about 7.00 am, soldiers returned and ordered the group to move out. Five minutes after this members of the group carrying recording equipment were arrested. Immediately after, the peaceful demonstrators were forcibly and violently removed-dragged over aproximatly 250 meters over concrete, rubble,glass and barricades. At about 7.35 am , Lorenza, two Palestinians, one Israeli,and one Uk national were put into a small van away from the rest of the group. At approximately 9.00am, the jeep carrying Lorenza arrived at Ariel police station. Lorenza was held in the van for two hours.Then she was taken inside the police station where she waited for at least an hour. She was brought beforea senior police officer . He tried to make her sign a statement but she refused , saying she didn’t understand what she would be signing .The officer got one of the other deteined peace activists ( a female Italian national with some knowledge of English) to come and translate from English into Italian on his behalf. He had acting translator read Lorenza her rights and informed her she was being charged with kicking a police officer in the stomach .He once again asked her to sign the paper but she refused, as the didn’t understand what she was signing. She asked to see her lawyers. Since one of the lawyers was able to speak Spanish, they were able to communicate to her that as the police station was not a suitable place to detain her, if a suitable detention center could not be found, she would be released with the rest of the group. At about 5.00 pm , Lorenza was allowed to rejoin the other members of the group in another part of the police station. At about 9.00 pm , Lorenza was escorted with the same female Italian national who had previously acted as her translator. She was interrogated again, on this occasion with officials from the Ministry of the Interior. One of the officials , a woman, told Lorenza she was being held because she had been in “a closed military zone”, and that when a military official had shown the group a notice ( written in Hebrew) proclaiming this , she had ignored the notice and violently resisted removal by attacking an officer . Lorenza stated that she had never been made aware of the declaration.The officials requested that she sign the statement admitting that she: 1) Had been in a closed military zone 2) Had failed to vacate the premises 3) Had attacked a police officer or a soldier (it was not clear to the acting translator) Lorenza stated that she was not going to sign anything in a language she did not understand. They showed her a statement in English, and because she could not speak any English she refused to sign this . She asked to see legal counsel .They said the lawyers had said they were not going to come because it was night time and they didn’t want to enter the Occupied Territories at this time of day. The acting translator suggested that it would be better to wait for day-time, when the lawyers would be able to come. The officials rejected this, saying this interrogation was legal, as the lawyers 'had refused' to come. The senior police officer explained to Lorenza that since she had committed 'a crime,' it was as if she had entered the Occupied Territories illegally, and she was in custody of the police from 7.00am, 5th August, until 7.00am, 6th August. The police would be holding Lorenza in custody until the Ministry of the Interior had decided what to do with her. The acting translator and Lorenza therefore understood that she would be staying at Ariel police station until 7.00am, 6th August. At around 10.30pm, the acting translator was escorted back to the main group of activists who were being held. Lorenza was still held in separate quarters, where she waited for approximately another hour. They tried to make her understand that she would be going to Hadera detention centre. At that point, she asked for her lawyer once again. The officers told her they would be available to her tomorrow. Sometime after 11.00pm, she arrived at Hadera detention centre. Upon arrival, she understood that the police were registering her personal details, and she asked to see her lawyer once again. Again they answered, "tomorrow." They made her give up her mobile phone, and when she asked if she could make a phone call, they told her she could make it the following day with a telephone card. She was led into a detention cell, which was already inhabited by seven other women. 6th August, in the morning an official brought Lorenza a statement written in Hebrew, and attempted to make her to sign it. When she refused, the official got angry with her and she left shortly afterwards. Lorenza once again asked for permission to make a phone call, to which the answer was that she must wait until 10.00am. When she asked again, they told her to wait till 11.00am. At 11.00am, they told her to wait until 1.00pm. Only at 2.30 pm was she allowed to queue up with several other detainees to make her phone call. However, while she was waiting, she was called away, because representatives from the Italian Embassy were waiting to talk to her. The representatives advised her to sign papers which said she was expelled from the country. The aim of the representatives was to get her out of the detention centre as soon as possible. She was not informed of the possibility of appealing against this. When Lorenza complained about her lack of access to legal counsel, the representatives told her that she had not been arrested, but only detained. It seemed to Lorenza that they were suggesting that for this reason, she did not have the right to see a lawyer. 7th August Lorenza was taken to the airport in the morning and put on a flight to Italy. Laura Zanardi ________________________ Simone Brocchi _______________________ add your comments

Were any other of the internationals deported by Peter Kropotkin 12:31pm Tue Aug 19 '03 print comment After the arrests in Mas'ha, were any of the other internationals deported, or was she the only one? add your comments